“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” – Ernest Hemingway
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice—
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world
determined to do
the only thing you could do—
determined to save
the only life you could save.
To the delight and/or horror of people around the globe, February 14 is upon us.
It’s like Lillith Fair minus the angst — plus fritatas. – Leslie Knope
This day can only mean one of two things:
You’re in a relationship and you are celebrating in high style with your snugglebum or…you’re sitting at home on the couch bemoaning your “single” status with Chinese takeout, a bottle of booze and a cardboard heart of half-eaten chocolates and shame.
Or, like me, you could take a tip from Leslie Knope and have a Galentine’s Day with a lady friend.
The 90s alternative music scene was the place to be if you were a girl with vocal chops, guitar-shredding skills and a bad ass attitude. A high angst quotient didn’t hurt either.
And what a decade for fashion.
It was like a 1960s-era Las Vegas lounge club exploded and managed to pull some bits of the 40s and 70s into the blast. I still remember the silver holographic spandex tank top I bought along with the white pleather jacket with enough (faux) lambs wool trim for a small Tibetian village.
Baggy jeans and one-size-too-small tees? Lipstick so marroon your lips were perma-stained? FLANNEL? Oh…and let’s not forget the mini-skirts and knee-high tights! I so belonged in a grrrrl band (or on the Sunset Strip — the jury is still out on that).
See that furry thing that Kate Moss is sporting? I owned something similar and it made my 17 year-old heart feel quite fashionable. Looking back on it today, I probably looked more like a runaway prostitute than a fashion model.
Let it also be known that the 80s fashion trends are swiftly turning their eye to the grungy 90s. Prepare yourself for jean shorts with tights, matte lipstick galore, distressed leather jackets, combat boots with dresses and lots and lots of P-L-A-I-D. Most of this is already a thing but the South is slow to respond. I guess we like to think it over before we jump onto the fashion train.
The one thing I will not miss are mom jeans. No matter how tiny your waist or tight your tush, no one looks good in mom jeans, but apparently they are popular in Buenos Aires.
Between seeing what is emmerging this spring on the runway, hearing that The Breeders are touring again, and watching Clueless this weekend (a young Paul Rudd — I mean hello!) I have become fondly reminiscent about one of my favorite things from that decade: the music.
So to give you a peek inside my boy-crazed, music-fueled, and hormonal teenage brain, here are some of my favorite chick-led bands from the 90s.
“It’s always more intriguing to imagine what’s happening, as opposed to seeing everything, because then you can use your imagination. I always wanted to be at a distance.” – Sofia Coppola
I love me some Sofia Coppola and anything she touches is gold in my book.
Production design and music pretty much cement a movie for me (along with a good script of course) but this time I have to say that the music stole the show. Don’t get me wrong, I could go on for days and days about the painstaking recreation of — well — pretty much everything in the entire movie, but the music drew me in and kind of obliterated everything else.
Pastel pastries be damned. Give me some music!
“Acting isn’t for me. I don’t like being told what to do. I’m more interested in set design, more visually driven.” – Sofia Coppola
The soundtracks to her movies are always great and they add a lot of emotion and depth (even if it is pop music). The treatment of the subject, which is usually sterile and very bookish, gives insight as to how a teenager might have felt in having the entire treasury of France at her feet yet not one soul to truly call a friend.She literally has everything she could have wanted yet she’s quite the lonely dauphine, er, queen.
It’s like Molly Ringwald in French class: pink dress, gossip, backstabbing and all.
So, in honor of the amazing 1980s — America’s poshest decade full of waste and frivolity and horribly bad fashion — I present to you some of my favorite tracks from the soundtrack to Marie Antoinette.
Enjoy mes chéris! Now go eat some cake or something.
And for the coups de gras – a cameo by Phoenix (a Sofia Coppola favorite, probably because she’s married to Thomas Mars, the lead singer, and also probably because they’re French).
“All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.” – George Harrison
Dear Year Thirty-Three,
I have a few requests, thoughts and ideas for you based on the previous thirty-two years of my life.
Request #1: I like all the time we have spent together. I really do. However, I would prefer it if we could just slow down and relax together. Take a breather. Have a chat and some coffee. Be comfortable with silence. Breathe.
Request #2: Being on the “other” side of thirty, I would like it if the gray hair at my temples, the pre-wrinkles around my eyes and the increasing inability to stay up past midnight could be viewed as signs of growth and not aging. I think that’s more on my shoulders than yours, though.
Request #3: Thirty-three is considered a Master Number in Numerology. How about this year we focus on growing toward some of the aspects of the number (compassion, courage and healing) and begin to let go of some of the more banal aspects of life. Again…pretty sure this one is on me.
I know that we take a lot out of each other and it can be draining, so I wanted to give you a few kudos for what you have brought into my life.
Thank You #1: Thank you for simply allowing me to be. I realize that’s more of a thank you to my parents for conceiving me, but still…thanks. Even with the heartaches and headaches of life, I still believe that the world is a marvelous place full of beauty and love. I hope that I will always look at life that way.
Thank You #2: Thank you for bringing hundreds of wonderful people into my life. Some I knew only for a short time while others I have known literally since birth. Everyone has brought something to me, whether it was happiness, sorrow or a combination of the two. I have had conversations that have expanded my way of thinking. I have made memories that will never cease to make me laugh and smile. I have gained and I have lost a fair number of people but I wouldn’t consider my life to be authentic without having a little darkness to balance the light.
Thank You #3: Thank you for never letting me feel “settled”. Thank you for always keeping my mind moving onto something new and different. Thank you for introducing change into my life as a way to keep my roots from getting so deep that I am incapable of movement — even if for a short time some of that momentum seems to take me backward. Thank you for showing me how to let go of things that have served me well but are no longer necessary for the expansion of my consciousness and my potential.
I anticipate the following year and plan to do great and marvelous things on your behalf. I hope that you look at the time that you have given me and overlook my shortcomings, failures and missteps. These are not setbacks. They are just fuel for the next 33 years.
Sincerely and Respectfully,
E
P.S. Herb Alpert’s “Rise” was the number one song on my birthday back in 1979. This must have been where I got my love of music because I have always thought this song was awesome (and not just because The Notorious B.I.G. sampled it).
Whether you’re a closet Cosplayer or live to dress up like your favorite fictional character — or even think the whole thing is a nerdy waste of time — this video shot at this year’s Dragon*Con in Atlanta is a pretty epic show of fandom force.
I really get into Halloween and love costume parties so I have a feeling I would fit right in at one of these things. I have mad love for people who have imagination and a sense of wonder when it comes to life and these lads and ladies prove that dressing up isn’t just for the kiddos.
Props to the people who dressed up like Jareth The Goblin King and Sarah from Labyrinth.
Hearing a remix of “Real Hero” by College doesn’t hurt things, either.
…been on a Buckley kick lately. Even though I really like his original work this will always be one of my favorites. It’s sad and lovely I could listen to it on repeat forever and ever.
“We found that just by the way we stood, affected women dramatically, and if you look at our show, you’ll see that we always stood with our legs open our fists on hips and our bat bulges forward, which had a profound effect on women!” – Burt Ward
I found a few of my favorite clips from perhaps the most ridiculously awesome show ever to ever grace American television: Batman.
I watched the hell out of it when I was a kid (thank heavens for syndication) and for some odd reason I always wanted to be Robin. So much to the point that my mom made me a yellow cape with a large “R” sewn onto it.
Don’t ask me why I chose his lame ass as a role model. Maybe I just wanted to wear tiny green shorts and a black mask on my face.
“You shake a pretty mean cape, Batman!”
If he were my partner I’d have to kill him with my battarang.
Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, ‘May you never bear fruit again!’ Immediately the tree withered.
I am a huge fan of Adam Lepzig (I’ll save you my jibber jabber on how awesome he is and send you off to see for yourself).
According to Adam, we live in a culture where financial success has taken the place of aesthetic judgement. “Money = Good” is our country’s motto.
In fact, the exact opposite is true: Business success is not the same as creative success.
I found an inspiring TED Talk with Adam regarding the culture war that we face in America, what truths and myths exist about it, and how we can use our own voice, our vulnerability and our creativity to bring about a shift in our own way of thinking.
I also have to agree with Adam — as I have had this thought myself many times over the years — that ingenuity, creativity and inspired living are an important factor in rebuilding and…
Nouveau Bohemian 